Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-05-21
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
The Devices of Young Men on Small Sal-
 aries to Live and Dress.

The Devices of Young Men on Small Sal
 aries to Live and Dress.
  To work-a-day folks, who toll and sweat year in and year out and barely make both ends meet, even on salaries above the average, it is always some thing of g mystery how so many young men, on salaries of SIP week, or from that to SIS at the outside, manage at all times to keep dressed in the night of fashion and find leisure to air them selves and their clothes in conspicuous ly public places. There is good-szed world of these butterfly young men in New York. It takes in over half the young men in the city. They are bill clerks, or messengers, or undertook keepers in the big mercantile houses, or '.ladies' men" in the dry-goods houses, or young men who do anything that passes for work without involving act ual manual labor. They are always rigged out in the latest cut of clothes. They never seem ln hurry. They loiter through the avenues and the parks, which are their ayoElts resorts i hover about the theater Nloors at night like gnats around the electric lights To all appearances they are young men of elegant leisure and unlimited re- sources. How do they manage it on SIP a weekP
 ''1 will show you; come upstairs moment" said renter of rooms on Eighth avenue, near Forty-eighth street, the other day. She is matronly per son, and has dozen or more young men for roomers in her flats. She led the way to the fourth story. At the head l of the stairs she opened the door to a l hall room. The room was small but clean. Its furniture consisted of bed, plain washstand, and two chairs. A row of hooks on the wall opposite the bed did service instead of a clothes press, and the washstand drawer sup piled the absence of bureau. In the corner of the room behind the door was plain pine box. like an ordinary soap box. On it stood a small oil-stove.
 1.-The young man who rents this now, :" 1 of the most fashionable retail dry-goods houses on Sixth avenue. In personal appearance you couldn't tell him from a millionaire, but he gets onlyS11.50 a week. He pays me B week for this room. Out of the other $9.50 he boards himself, pays for his washing, buys his clothes-and he always wears the latest styles-in fact, his entire living expenses come out of the S8.50. What is his secret? It is contained in this pine box"
 She removed the oil-stove and lifted the box lid. Inside were small fry ing-pan; Q miniature coffee-pot, cup and saucer, two spoons, knife and fork, and several paper packages.
 ..Here, yon see," continued the land lady, lis little housekeeping outfit. With it and the oil-stove the young dry goods clerk practically boards himself that is, he gets his own breakfast and supper every day, and no one is wiser. Those packages in the box contain wha he eats In the amorning-he makes $ cup of coffee for himself, which is ar easy matter with lhc oil-stove. He also cooks little rice, an egg, piece O bacon, or sometimes small piece O steak. Either makes palatable ane sustaining meal. That is before he zoe; to work. In the evening when he re turns from the store hecooks his supper in the same way. He does his little marketing himself, too, and be has be comAso good at it that he can do fully as well as 1 can at the stores. He vii buy piece of bacon, enough for thre, meals. for six cents; rice for six meals 10 cents; q can of condensed milk which will last not less than ten days for Ii cents; eggs at 2 cents each; halfpound of cheese. which will last; week, 123 cents; coffee enough for tel days, half pound, for 123 cents; suga for a week, 10 cents; potatoes. nine 0, ten big ones, that Will suffice for no less than four meals. for nickel you will figure the cost of one meal ou of this list you will find that, with va. riety limited only by the articles or hand, the expense will not exceed Il ecnts-that is, 20 cents day for the two meals, to which add 10 cents that he spends downtown for lunch, and you have 30 cents day, or $2. 10 a a week, as the cost of his board His washing costs not over 9 cents a week, as he is neat and careful, so that his actual living expenses, including the S3 room-rent. are S5.S5 week. of,sallow- ing the odd 15 cents for oil to brn ir the little stove (two cents worth vii last nine hours in it). his total expendi ture is S5. 50 a week, which leaves $t from his salary to be spent on clothes or whatever he chooses. That, sir, is the way hundreds, I might even say thousands and thousands. of young mer in New Yc,k live and manage to keel up appearances. ."-Nesc Yor5 Hail and Express.